Psychiatric Associates of Atlanta Mental Health News |
Sunday, February 23, 2003
Depression's Long Shadow LONDON, Feb. 21, 2003 (AP) Most patients treated for depression should remain on medication after their gloom has lifted, new research suggests. Over the last decade, scientists have discovered that depression, which plagues millions, recurs repeatedly in four out of five patients. However, it is still mostly tackled as an episode, and drugs are usually prescribed for no more than two or three months. A comprehensive review of 30 years of evidence, published this week in the Lancet medical journal, suggests that is the wrong approach. In the analysis, those who stayed on antidepressants were half as likely to have another bout of depression as those who stopped taking medication. Monday, February 17, 2003
Program aims to divert mentally ill from jail The goal is to identify the best treatment for the mentally ill rather than booking them in jail. By Anne Hart ahart@savannahnow.com 912-652-0374 Get officers who deal with mentally ill people back on the street sooner. And reduce jail overcrowding. Those are the goals of new Savannah police program. A mental health professional now works at Savannah police Precinct 2 on Bull Street. That lets officers encountering someone needing mental health treatment take the person to the precinct for screening. The health professional will get the person medical treatment if needed. Wednesday, February 12, 2003
College Students at Risk During Alcohol-Related Blackouts By Ascribe, 2/12/2003 01:07 DURHAM, N.C., Feb. 12 (AScribe Newswire) -- A survey by Duke University Medical Center researchers suggests that college students are engaging in significantly risky behaviors during alcohol-related memory ''blackouts.'' The researchers further note that female students may be at greater risk during a blackout than their male counterparts. The survey results appear in the most recent issue of the Journal of American College Health, published in February 2003 (but dated November 2002). According to the researchers, the survey findings offer important insights into the experiences college students are having with alcohol - the most popular drug on American college campuses. Nearly three-fourths of all respondents (74.2 percent) reported consuming alcohol in the two-week period prior to the survey. Of those, nearly one in 10 (9.4 percent) had experienced at least one blackout during that same time period, while 40 percent reported having experienced at least one during the previous year.
Common Gene Could Link Multiple Psychiatric, Medical Disorders BELMONT, Mass., Feb. 10 (AScribe Newswire) -- A study by McLean Hospital researchers has shown that depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, as well as several other psychiatric and medical conditions might all be traceable to a common, but still unknown, genetic abnormality. The study appears in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. "Let me give you an analogy," said James Hudson, MD, ScD, associate chief of the Biological Psychiatry Laboratory at McLean. "We don't diagnose patients as having 'runny nose disease', 'sore throat disease' and 'cough disease'; they all simply have the common cold. Similarly, the results of our family study suggest that conditions such as major depression, panic attacks, obsessive compulsive disorder, compulsive binge eating and even certain medical disorders could all be caused by a single underlying disease - the common cold of psychiatry, if you will."
Wyeth Drug Is Approved By BLOOMBERG NEWS MADISON, N.J., Feb. 11 — Wyeth said today that the Food and Drug Administration had approved use of its antidepressant Effexor as a treatment for social anxiety disorder. Effexor, which had 2002 sales of $2.07 billion, is already approved to treat depression and general anxiety. Social phobia is the third most common psychiatric disorder in the nation, Wyeth said. People with the condition fear scrutiny, embarrassment or humiliation in social situations, the company said.
College students report more stress, depression, suicidal thoughts BY KAREN PATTERSON The Dallas Morning News DALLAS - KRT NEWSFEATURES (KRT) - Depression, suicidal thoughts and other worrisome conditions appear to have increased dramatically among college students seeking on-campus counseling, a new study suggests. The study examined 13 years' worth of problems addressed in a university counseling center. Among other findings, the percentage of students seen with depression nearly doubled, as did that of students seen with suicidal thoughts. The surge in potentially suicidal students is "huge," said psychologist Sherry Benton, who led the research, at Kansas State University. "In the early years, we were talking in the high 20s per year," she said. "Now it's closer to 100" students. Suicides on the main campus and its satellites have ranged annually from zero to four in recent years. Saturday, February 08, 2003
Data Published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry Indicate Bipolar Disorder May Affect Three Times More Americans Than Previously Believed Yahoo News Thursday February 6, 9:28 am ET GALVESTON, Texas, Feb. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Results from a landmark nationwide study published in the January issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry show that three times as many people may suffer from bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, than previously believed. In addition, the survey results from more than 85,000 Americans indicate that up to 80 percent of those who screened positive had not been diagnosed with the illness and nearly one third had been misdiagnosed with major depression-underscoring the need for early detection and accurate diagnosis. "These groundbreaking results demonstrate that bipolar disorder is frequent and often unrecognized," said Robert M.A. Hirschfeld, M.D., Titus Harris Chair, Professor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. "While previous studies reported a prevalence of approximately 1 percent of the American population or 2.3 million Americans, these results suggest that the illness affects millions-nearly 4 percent of adult Americans. These data clearly demonstrate the magnitude of under- and misdiagnosis of this serious illness and beg for improved screening for this illness." |
